Album
Type: Full
Length
Date
Released: 10/01/2020
Label: Prophecy Productions
“Oresteia” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1). Agamemnon
2). Banishment
3). Libation Bearers
4). Wow
5). The Furies
6). Reverence
7). Sister in Silence
8). The Kindly Ones
The
Review:
Lotus
Thief bring
me back to when I was a teenager and fascinated by the likes of epic and poetic
metal bands like Opeth and Agalloch. Their sound
is expansive, thick, and layered. The songs ebb and flow together to create a
vast, artistic album that truly sounds dramatic. It’s quite appropriate that
this, their third LP, retells a classical Greek trilogy using a doomy,
blackened soundtrack.
If you’re not versed in Greek tragedy
you can skim the Wikipedia article for Aeschylus' Oresteia (like I did) to get
an understanding of the lyrics. It follows Agamemnon as he returns home from
the Trojan War and involves a cycle of murderous revenge. The music is
naturally as dark and forceful as is necessary to do the narrative justice.
What I really want to point out, though, is how melodic and accessible this
record really is. Yes, it is heavy music but the focus here is completely on
the songs themselves as parts of the overarching story. We don’t, as listeners,
feel an urge to focus on any particular riffs, instead we lean into the
progression of each musical piece as it pushes forward like the chapter in a
book. Even the more ambient interludes dive us deeper in, brilliantly flowing
the longer songs together in a cohesive manner.
“Oresteia”
just sounds good. The production is relatively clean as each musical layer is
quite apparent, nicely sitting in the mist together. At no real moment do any
instruments distract from the purpose of each song, even during the more
aggressive black metal styled sections, and I mean this as a salute to the
band’s commitment to driving the narrative to the listener. Sometimes it is
best to just stay back and let the song simply exist. The vocals here are
absolutely wonderful. Bezaelith’s melodic and
powerful performance across the LP, particularly in “Libation Bearers”
and “The Furies,” is what really sells it. Vocal lines are about as
confident as one would think is needed to call upon Greek deities to engage in
very human affairs of vengeance.
Lotus
Thief deserve
to be appreciated by both the underground and more mainstream metal worlds. It
would make perfect sense for them to tour alongside larger names such as King Woman or even Alcest. They really hit
the mark on creating melodic dark music that, though it doesn’t necessarily
have many hooks, could be appreciated by any fan of alt rock that can tolerate
a little bit of growling vocals. What I most commend here is the ability to
write an album that feels this way while still offering a sense of genuinity.
It really feels like Lotus
Thief are
doing exactly what they want to do.
“Oresteia”
is available HERE
